You know the “anti-everything” brigade. Well-heeled baby boomers. NIMBYs. Spent their lives tree-hugging. Bleating about democratic process. A crier over spilt milk. Staring blankly at the unbolted stable door.
Not the kind of unquestioning, trusting Tasmanian being comprehensively lied to by Energy Minister Nick Duigan to this morning (August 1) as he confirmed signing up to Project Marinus on ABC Radio Mornings:
“This is a massive deal for Tasmania, our future energy security, our energy supply — but also the Tasmanian bottom line and prosperity for our state.”
Trust me, he said. The state Liberals have knocked out a brilliant deal with Commonwealth over Project Marinus.
(The mind of the eternally pessimistic voter (see above) immediately brings up the ripper deal with the AFL over the stadium and the seamless transition to the new Bass Strait ferries).
Lest I be accused of singling out a caretaker minster for such a pejorative slur, Duigan is in good company.
Previous Marinus spruiker and now caretaker Attorney General Guy Barnett promised on May 16 : “We’re taking a disciplined, evidenced-based approach to this nationally significant project and as I have previously committed the government will release the Whole Of State Business Case 30 days before our FID”.
That was the date Treasury delivered the document. Release to whom, he didn’t say, although there seemed to be a promise that the public might see it as parliamentary debate ensued. In the month prior to Rockliff asking the Governor for an election, the business case was withheld, despite requests for its distribution.
His Liberal leader, caretaker Premier Rockliff – having refused for months to be interviewed live on Tasmania’s most-listened morning radio segment – also assured the populace of ongoing consultation before such a major decision about Tasmania’s future would be made.
Rockliff: “The parliament was working well, Leon,” he tells host Leon Compton on Tasmania Mornings.
“We had all areas of the parliament having a win … Everyone was having a say. And that’s why I’m very disappointed that we’re in the position where we were forced to an election.”
“What I want to see moving forward is, as [it says in] the stability agreement, draft agreement, of course … we want a greater input by the parliament.” He’d talked about consulting crossbenchers.
Marinus needed to stack up for Tasmania before it went ahead.
“That’s why we’re moving through a careful, transparent process that ensures the decision we make is the right one for Tasmanians. This election comes down to one choice: a strong Liberal team with a real plan or another merry-go-round of chaos.”
Speaking of merry-go-rounds, see https://tasmaniantimes.com/2025/07/marinus-links-multi-billion-dollar-merry-go-round/
All lies.
Labor’s Dean Winter, in what can only be described as an own-goal, set an election in process which has provided such extraordinary circumstances that without the need to even confer with the others MPs, Rockliff has been able to commit Tasmania to the biggest-ever, debt-funded infrastructure spend in the our history. (That’s in today’s dollars, and at yesterday’s costings).
Despite a belting at the polls, Winter does not have to shoulder the election burden alone. Rockliff, a member of the conservative, God-save-the-king side of politics, has cherry-picked whichever Westminster convention suits his needs.
Having lost the confidence of the House, he could have stood aside for a new Premier, and the nightmare budget which precipitated our latest election may have at least been debated and a highly-unpopular election avoided.
But there’s a Liberal-infused, born-to-rule ego in there, like a canker in the Big Spud.
Selected MPs were bundled into a secured room, to be confronted with volumes of documents and a secrecy waiver. Rockliff left them for about four hours to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest, then turfed them out – all totally gagged to make any comment to the media.
With all that theatre playing out and grabbing public attention, caretaker minister Duigan made the latest behind-the-scene decision by signing ”a new deal with the Federal Government on Thursday night” (July 31).
Without any oversight (or if so, by whom?), Duigan has signed us up to a “significantly better deal for Tasmania”. Superior to the stadium? Finer than the ferries fiasco?
Although un-needed, we were further reassured by Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck. (Cast your mind back to the Covid pandemic to recall his acumen as ex-Federal Minister for Senior Australian and Aged Care Services ).
Colbeck was able to cast a positive light on the “whole picture” as a guest on ABC Northern Tasmania’s Drive segment. However, he was gone before he could enlighten listeners about the length of time (measured in days?) and location (locked room?) in which he was assisted hopefully) by experts.
Even the TCCI’s Michael Bailey exhorted us to trust his Liberal compatriots in abandoning basic business practice when reviewing a contract.
“Sign the deal. Let’s get it done. I understand the deal has been negotiated with the Federal Government. We should be very proud of this. Let’s just get on with it.
Asked by ABC’s Leon Compton if all details would be released, Bailey enthused:
“Absolutely. I want to see them myself…”
“And yet, there needs to be much better communication. The people of Tasmania still haven’t been told properly why this is so important”.
There’s a final statement which could forensically dissected.
So to the bigger issue which has been a decades-long irritant to the democracy-loving, process-driven and rheumy voter, and no doubt, a legion of younger successors. This is the mob not represented by the open-door policy of governments to well-heeled lobbyists (dare one mention donors in the same sentence?)
This is not the first time a critical decision has been made on Project Marinus. Last March – that’s last election, during the last caretaker period – Labor’s Rebecca White and her successor Winter were given a quick look at a contract which transferred Marinus Link Pty Ltd from a TasNetwork’s subsidiary to the new tripartite entity.
They nodded their approval. As we now learn, even that “courtesy” extended by Rockliff was a sham.
Tasmania was relieved of a $5.5 billion millstone by a bucket of concessional cash from Canberra, and in September 2023 Guy Barnett was saved from a possible prosecution by the Privileges and Conduct Committee for withholding financial information about the new costings.
But today’s bombshell ushers in a new level of concern.
Tasmania is in a period where Parliament has been dissolved. There is no recourse to laws and regulations – merely “conventions”.
Professor of Constitutional Law and Director of Constitutional Reform Unit at Sydney Law School Anne Twomey has been widely consulted, and responded to my query.
“In any case, as a matter of law, the government is able to exercise its full powers, even when in caretaker mode. There must always be a government in place with full power to act when necessary.
The caretaker conventions are conventions only – which means they are not legally binding. They represent accepted principles of appropriate conduct. A government can breach them and wear the political consequences if it chooses to do so. The political harm, however, may last for a long time.
Finally, whether the Government can make the relevant decision will depend very much on whether there is any legislation that governs the decision-making process. I don’t know whether that is the case. Administrative law may also affect the validity of executive decisions.”
That a system ruled assiduously by democratic process can be left to run for weeks or months on a handshake – dating from 1858 when a handshake was considered a man’s bond – is a system long past review.
As this miscarriage of process around Project Marinus unfolds, there may be room for legal challenge.
While not in any position to contemplate the mechanics, a first principles might require a sitting Parliament which could address legislative change.
But Professor Twomey suggests that as the Marinus deal is an inter-governmental project, there may be a requirement “that any outcomes will need to authorised by the incoming government or the opposition’s agreement on negotiation positions could be sought”.
However, she then reiterates that these are only conventions. The opposition has no power to veto the agreement.
See her plain language opinion, recorded yesterday (July 31) on the particular caretaker situation in Tasmania, and the Marinus decision:
Anne Twomey On Caretaker Conventions & Marinus Link – Tasmanian Times
Which, of course, brings us to the obvious fallout from the Rockliff/Duigan deal with the Commonwealth and Victoria.
It was a difficult-enough path a week ago for either of our legacy political parties to enlist enough support from the Greens, returned independents and the as-yet-unelected crossbench to form a stable government.
The disgust and distrust manifest in the public statements made by these people – the slighted representatives of non LibLab disciples – seem most strongly articulated by a now-seasoned and straight-talking Craig Garland.
“It was rushed, secretive and emblematic of a government that has learned nothing.
“The same arrogance, lack of transparency, incompetence and dishonesty continue to define this administration, with the energy minister on behalf of the government, signing Tasmania up to yet another multi-billion dollar — behind closed doors — deal, without a mandate and without proper scrutiny, that will cost Tasmanians.”
The re-elected independent for Braddon said these were not “traits of a government” that he could support.
The mainland might well think they have secured a stable source of power from a mendicant Tasmania, but there’s the inevitable shock of a short-circuit if we are forced to the ballot-box once more to install a representative and honest government.
Greg Pullen has a keen interest in renewable energy transformation, in particular its benefits for Tasmania. He is a firm believer in the KISS Principle.
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